Fad, fashion and fit: An examination of quality circles, business process re-engineering and statistical process control

This paper reports the major findings of a literature-based study which has examined the extent or otherwise to which quality circles (QCs), business process re-engineering (BPR) and statistical process control (SPC) follow t he path of fad, fashion and fit. The findings indicate that QCs exhibit bou ndary conditions between the fad and fashion stages, BPR is in the fad phas e, and it was difficult to position SPC using the methodology employed in t he study. In tracking the development of management initiatives, from fad t hrough fashion to fit the literature was evaluated using the six-stage mode l developed by Van der Wiele (Beyond Fads, Eburon, Rotterdam, 1998); howeve r, some difficulties were encountered due to the lack of definition precisi on, in particular that of fashion. The methodology used to assess the liter ature in terms of the degree to which the paper describing each initiative represented fad, fashion or fit conditions was relatively successful and th is is detailed. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.